


Competitive Teasing and Beginning Self-Control

by BexYZ



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: F/M, Kissing, M/M, Teasing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:54:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27649858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BexYZ/pseuds/BexYZ
Summary: Annie thinks it's easy to refrain from touching oneself or others. Abed and Troy want to prove she's wrong (and maybe get out of doing dishes).
Relationships: Annie Edison/Abed Nadir, Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir, Troy Barnes/Annie Edison
Comments: 4
Kudos: 69





	Competitive Teasing and Beginning Self-Control

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fanfic I've ever written - I just couldn't get the idea out of my head, so here we go. Apologies for potential OOC vibes and general awkwardness. (Inspired by "The Contest" episode from Seinfeld.)

“I don’t think we’re going to win this time.”

Troy and Abed were lying in their bunk beds, both reflecting on their latest roommate wager and how ridiculously irritating their current situation had come to be.  
___  
Roommate wagers had become a fairly regular occurrence in the Trobedison apartment. They weren’t sure exactly how it had started but they all remembered the time that Troy and Abed thought Annie’s study habits were out of control and had bet that she couldn’t go a week without recopying her notes to ensure they were all perfectly neat and color-coded to her exact specifications. Troy and Abed had gotten out of grocery pick up for a month after that one.

And Troy and Annie finally got together and told Abed that he was blurring the lines between himself and Inspector Spacetime a little too often to be considered “cute weird” anymore. They said he needed to go two weeks without watching any episodes, reenacting any scenes in the Dreamatorium, or wearing bowler hats. It was difficult, but Abed actually won that round. When Abed commits to a bit, he commits to a bit.

Their current wager started while the three were eating supper and watching Seinfeld.

“This episode is stupid. There is no way their contest would be that difficult,” Annie said.

Troy and Abed both glanced at Annie while she was staring at the screen. Then they looked at each other, raised their eyebrows in silent agreement, and decided to let her rant without interruption.

“I mean, seriously. Is it just me? Aren’t they being overdramatic?” she said, insisting on her roommates’ participation in her currently one-sided discussion.

“I think you might be overestimating your own self-control” Troy admitted. “I can see their point.”

“Abed? You agree with me, right?”

“As a student of human character, I’m going to have to agree with Troy on this one,” Abed finally conceded.

“As a student of human character, my butt,” said Troy. “I know what happens in the bottom bunk when you think I’m asleep.”

“There’s a human character in the top bunk. I can study that.”

“Ugh. BOYS.” Annie muttered to herself. “Maybe they’re right and it just is different with women.”

“You really think so? How about a wager?” said Troy, looking to Abed for support. “Us against you. We win if one of us can last longer than you.”

“That could be months, unless you guys really have that little self-control. What reward could possibly be worth that to you?”

“We don’t have to wash dishes for…six months,” said Abed.

“Fine,” said Annie. “Done. What are the rules?”

Troy shrugged. “No lying. No “help” from others. Time starts this Sunday. I don’t think it’ll take that long for you to cave. We’ll be fine.”

Famous last words.  
___  
The first week went by fairly easily for all of them. Sometimes Troy would catch himself daydreaming and his hand wandered out of habit, but he realized he was just bored.

The second week, Abed noticed his roommates were getting a little antsy. Maybe he was too, but he couldn’t study his own reactions as easily as those around him. He figured he’d be fine because he’d committed to the bit.

By the following Wednesday, they were all taking slightly longer looks at each other than usual and getting jumpy when one of the others brushed by them in the kitchen. Even Troy and Abed caught themselves locking eyes a little too intensely during a session in the Dreamatorium. Troy immediately left to go to the gym and Abed locked himself in the bathroom for an extra cold shower. Annie found herself noticing Troy’s smile and Abed’s cheekbones more than she had in the past and realized she was in trouble.

Annie was competitive though. Once she realized this might be more difficult than she initially thought, she decided to take matters into her own hands to push her fellow residents along. She’d noticed them noticing her too and she figured she could use that to her advantage.  
___  
Annie’s wardrobe around the apartment started to gradually shift from cardigans and headbands to tank tops and short shorts. She began “accidentally” forgetting her robe in her bedroom when she went to take a shower and had to dash from the bathroom in just her towel a few too many times to be coincidental. Oddly enough, her memory only seemed to fail her when the boys were home. 

“She’s playing dirty,” Troy muttered to Abed after the two watched her drip from bathroom to bedroom one evening.

“There was nothing in the rules against it. You should know that. You made them up.”

“Well, if there’s nothing in the rules against it, then two can play at that game. Or rather, three. If you’re up for it and think it would work?”

“Sounds fun. And how could it not? We are pretty adorable.”

So Annie started to find herself with one or both of the boys more and more often. While watching TV, they would sandwich up against her, pressing their thighs against hers or casually draping an arm across the back of the couch behind her. 

Abed still loved explaining scenes in movies, but he started doing it in a low whisper with his lips practically touching her ear. And any time she was cooking, Troy always seemed to need something in the cabinet above her, pressing his chest against her back to reach over her head. 

All three roommates were finding themselves touching and cuddling each other more than ever before. They’d run their fingers down each other's arm while talking or snuggle up next to each other late at night. They all knew what the others were doing, but they never explicitly brought it up in conversation. They just waited, playing chicken and waiting to see who would break first.  
___  
One night, about five and a half weeks into the contest, Abed and Annie came home from a late study session to find Troy sitting at the dining room table with his head in his hands.

He looked straight at Abed. “I’m sorry, man. It’s all up to you now. I’m out.”

Abed tilted his head to one side and considered his best friend. “You were getting pretty easily distracted most of the time,” he shrugged. “I knew it was coming. No pun intended,” he added, waggling his eyebrows at Troy.

“Thanks for understanding, buddy.” They clapped out their handshake as Annie just rolled her eyes and rushed to her room, admittedly sporting a bright red face and not saying a word to either roommate.

“I think we’re nearing the last stand,” Abed said bravely, and went for his new nightly cold shower.  
___  
Two weeks.

They made it two more weeks before Annie was basically vibrating out of her skin, and not in the way she wanted.

Abed had become more and more forward in his advances to try and take her down, running his fingers through her hair while watching Inspector Spacetime or walking directly beside her, arms touching, through most of the day.

Annie, in turn, found herself rubbing his leg as they studied at the dining room table or leaning far too far forward any time she wore a low-cut shirt which was fast becoming a daily occurrence.

Troy was getting a little uncomfortable if he was being honest.

Finally, one Friday afternoon while Troy was at dance class, Abed blocked her from leaving the kitchen with an unfamiliar look on his face.

“What are we doing?” he asked.

“What are you talking about?” Annie said uneasily. She knew exactly what he was talking about.

“The touching. The looks. The slightly crazed look in your eyes if you think nobody is watching you. It’s not about the contest anymore, is it?”

Annie bit her lip. “I don’t remember the contest half the time I’m with you. The other half, it’s all I can think about,” she admitted.

“Can I kiss you?” Abed asked, in a voice similar to his normal monotone but slightly edgier in the best possible way to Annie’s ears.

“Yes,” Annie breathed. And he did.

She wasn’t sure if it was the weeks of deprivation and subsequent teasing or if it was just how kissing Abed felt, but her nerves were on fire and her ears were filled with a dull roar as her blood rushed through her veins.

She grabbed the back of his neck with one hand and gripped his shirt with her other, pulling him closer. He made a quiet noise in the back of his throat as he held her body against his with his surprisingly strong arms. 

“My room?” Annie gasped. 

“Yes,” he groaned in a voice Annie had never heard but immediately needed more of in her life. 

“Yes,” she agreed and raced with him across the apartment.  
___  
When Troy came home that night, he saw Abed and Annie cuddled together on the couch, eating popcorn and watching a movie. He noticed that neither of them jumped when their hands met in the bowl and that they seemed more relaxed than they had in weeks.

“Is it over? Who won?”

Abed and Annie both smiled sheepishly at him. “It’s over, but nobody won,” Annie admitted.

“What does that mean?” Troy asked, confused.

“Well, the rules specifically said ‘no help from others’ and we kind of broke that one. Together,” Abed told his best friend.

“Ah well,” Troy grinned. “I’m happy for you. We’ll call it a tie.”


End file.
